History Medical Books for Sale

 Memories, men and medicine : a history of medicine in Sacramento, California, with biographies of the founders of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement, and a few contemporaries. Published by The Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement - 1950

COST: Value Unknown

 Memories, men and medicine : a history of medicine in Sacramento, California,  The article examines infectious diseases — especially cholera — during the era of the California Gold Rush and the associated westward migrations and mining camps. It focuses particularly on how conditions in places like Sacramento and along emigrant trails contributed to disease outbreaks, and how these outbreaks affected the population in gold-rush era California. with biographies of the founders of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement, and a few contemporaries.

COST: 3.00

Erwin H. Ackerknecht’s A Short History of Medicine is a concise narrative, long appreciated by students in the history of medicine, medical students, historians, and medical professionals as well as all those seeking to understand the history of medicine.

Covering the broad sweep of discoveries from parasitic worms to bacilli and x-rays and highlighting physicians and scientists from Hippocrates and Galen to Pasteur, Koch, and Roentgen, Ackerknecht narrates Western and Eastern civilization’s work at identifying and curing disease. He follows these discoveries from the library to the bedside, hospital, and laboratory, illuminating how basic biological sciences interacted with clinical practice over time. But his story is more than one of laudable scientific and therapeutic achievement. Ackerknecht also points toward the social, ecological, economic, and political conditions that shape the incidence of disease. Improvements in health, Ackerknecht argues, depend on more than laboratory knowledge: they also require that we improve the lives of ordinary men and women by altering social conditions such as poverty and hunger.

COST: Unknown Value

 History of Medicine: A Correlative Text, Arranged According to Subjects (1947) by Cecilia C. Mettler, edited by Fred A. Mettler, is a comprehensive survey of medical history organized by discipline rather than chronology. Spanning over 1,200 pages, the book traces the development of major medical fields—such as anatomy, surgery, pharmacology, and obstetrics—from ancient to modern times. Designed as a teaching aid for medical students, it links the evolution of each specialty to contemporary medical study. Based on extensive research and original sources, the work offers an authoritative mid-20th-century perspective on medicine’s progress, though it predates modern advances and later social or global approaches to medical history. 

COST: Unknown Value

 A History of the California Academy of Medicine, 1870 to 1930 by J. Marion Read is a detailed chronicle of the Academy’s first fifty years, published in 1930 by The Grabhorn Press for the California Academy of Medicine. The book traces the organization’s growth, key figures, and contributions to medical practice and education in California, featuring photographs, tables, and membership records. Produced in a limited edition of 957 copies, it serves both as a historical record of Western medical progress and as a collectible example of early 20th-century medical publishing. 

COST: 25.00

 Written in 1938. An autobiography/memoir of a physician written at the request of his daughter who was a nurse. Though a personal record, Dr. Hertzler did not want to write as "one of the species" of old country doctors; indeed, he considered writing anonymously (ultimately persuaded otherwise) that it might be "a history of [his] own times. and personal only as far as is necessary in order to give it a point." In boyhood he witnessed sudden and helpless deaths of playmates felled by epidemic diphtheria; as a man he saw the bacterial disease brought under control by "one tube of antitoxin". In training, as a primary to entering medical school (Northwestern Univ) in the 1890s, he began by "reading medicine" with an established practitioners known as a preceptor (an apprenticeship including janitorial duties) and prove himself worthy in moral character. At book's end, the doctor laments the rising costs of medical care. that many people make "no provisions for rainy days" but will not subscribe to medical insurance, made city hospitals "palaces of the rich". On the serious end, Dr. Hertzler did succeed in writing a history of his times and remarkably addresses issues of our times as well; as highlights in his own life, the book is rich in humor and good cheer. 

COST: Value Unknown

 California’s Medical Story (1932) by Henry Harris, M.D., with an introduction by medical historian Charles Singer, is a comprehensive account of the development of medicine in California from the Spanish colonial era through the early 20th century. Published by J.W. Stacey in San Francisco, the book explores the state’s medical pioneers, institutions, epidemics, and the evolution of public health and medical education. Richly detailed and written with historical insight, it serves as both a tribute to California’s physicians and a valuable record of the state’s medical and social progress. 

COST: 25.00

 An American Doctor’s Odyssey: Adventures in Forty‑Five Countries by Victor G. Heiser (W.W. Norton, 1936) is a gripping memoir of a pioneering public‑health physician who traveled the globe—treating leprosy, smallpox, plague, beriberi, and other diseases in the Philippines, Asia, Africa, and beyond. With vivid storytelling and sharp insight, Heiser reflects on decades of service under the Rockefeller Foundation and in colonial medical systems, offering a candid and adventurous portrayal of medicine’s frontiers in the early twentieth century. 

COST: Value Unknown

 The Lame, The Halt, and The Blind: The Vital Role of Medicine in the History of Civilization (1932) by Howard W. Haggard is a sweeping history of medicine, charting its progress from primitive superstition to modern science. Published by Harper & Brothers, the book offers richly illustrated pages and explores how medical advances—through surgery, public health, anatomy, and treatment of epidemics—have shaped civilizations and relieved humanity from the burdens of “the lame, the halt, and the blind.”  

COST: 9.00 

 First History of Sacramento City by John F. Morse, M.D. is a pioneering historical account that offers one of the earliest written records of Sacramento’s founding and development during the mid-19th century. Originally published in 1853, the book captures the city’s transformation from a small settlement during the California Gold Rush into a thriving urban center. Morse, who was both a physician and journalist, provides vivid descriptions of early settlers, political struggles, floods, fires, and the spirit of enterprise that shaped Sacramento’s identity. 

COST: 15.00

An Introduction to the History of Medicine by Fielding H. Garrison, A.B., M.D., is a classic and comprehensive survey tracing the evolution of medical knowledge and practice from ancient times to the early 20th century. First published in the early 1900s and reprinted in 1929, this fourth edition reflects Garrison’s deep scholarship and engaging narrative style. The work explores the contributions of major civilizations, key physicians, scientific discoveries, and the gradual emergence of modern medicine, making it a foundational text for understanding the development of medical thought and progress through the ages.

COST: 12.50